Big Scores and Legendary Appearances in Pumping Conditions on Day One of the Katin Pro/Am Team Challenge

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif., Jan. 14, 2010 – The opening day of the Katin Pro/Am Team Challenge presented by Primo, an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) North America Specialty event, was graced with pumping six-to-eight foot surf at North Huntington Beach Pier today and saw Nick Rozsa (Oxnard, CA), 22, lead the front for Team Reef who finished the day in first.

The Katin Pro/Am Team Challenge offers a unique camaraderie-driven team-based format, with four-man teams out to compile their best results in their quest to claim both individual and team results. More than $28,500 in cash and prizes is up for grabs, not to mention bragging rights.Rozsa, who was a former standout on the ASP North America Pro Junior Series, hasn’t been focusing his time on competition, but seemed to easily find his feet in today’s competition and posted the day’s highest single wave score of a 9.63 out of 10 while helping the Reef team launch out to an early lead.

“I don’t know, that thing just came out of nowhere,” Rozsa said. “There’s a ton of current and it’s pretty scary out there once you get close to the pier. It’s just fun to surf in a team event. It takes the pressure off of you since we all have to do well to win the contest.”

Micah Byrne (Huntington Beach, CA), 28, opted for a change in equipment to negotiate the strong current pushing into Huntington Pier and his choice for a bigger board paid off while he nabbed the second-highest single wave score of the day, a near perfect 9.60 out of 10 with three powerful frontside gouges on a thundering righthander. The Huntington Beach regular-footer tagged another solid score into his score line while clinching the day’s highest heat total as well, a 17.43 out of 20, earning him a Kicker Digital Stereo System.

“There is so much water moving out there with the high tide,” Byrne said. “I rode a bigger board, a 6’3”, and the board still felt small out there. The paddle out is brutal, but I was able to get a couple of good scores.”

Byrne, surfing for Team Matix, is also taking some time to enjoy the long-running Huntington Beach event and the unique team format, which is a rarity in professional surfing.

“This is a fun event with the team format,” Byrne said. “There is a lot of talent in this event and it’s pretty much the same as doing an ASP 3-Star, but even if we’re not on the same team we’re all just cheering each other on.”

Tom Curren (Santa Barbara, CA), 45, who is a three-time ASP World Champion and two-time Katin Pro/Am Team Challenge winner (1982, 1987), found himself back in a jersey for Team Rip Curl at this year’s event and convincingly won his opening round heat more than 27 years after he first won the contest.

“This event brings back a lot of memories, a lot of good ones,” Curren said. “Back in the 80s, this was our (Californians) only chance to surf with all of the professional surfers. It’s nice to be back surfing in the event again.”

After today’s completion of Round 1, Team Reef leads with 16 points, followed by Team Surfline with 15 points, Team Fox with 14 points, Team Body Glove with 13 points, and last year’s reigning champion, Team Hurley with 12 pts.

The Katin Pro/Am Team Challenge presented by Primo will be back on tomorrow morning, January 15, 2010 beginning at 7:30 a.m. local time. A team and individual champion will be crowned by day’s end. The Awards ceremony will occur immediately following competition at approximately 3 p.m. at the Shorebreak Hotel.

For all of the LIVE action log on to www.katinproam.com <http://www.katinproam.com> . To keep up on all of the latest forecast and event information, text “KATIN” to 53137, follow on Twittertwitter.com/KatinProAm <http://twitter.com/KatinProAm> or Facebookfacebook.com/KatinUSA <http://www.facebook.com/KatinUSA> .
Special thanks to event sponsors: Katin USA, Primo, Jack’s, Surfing Magazine (surfingthemag.com), Hook-up Wireless, Cushe Footwear, Future Fins, Power Balance, Thumbwrestle Communications, Oceanaire Sportswear, Shorebreak Hotel, Fred’s Mexican Café, Wahoo’s, Faction Surfboards, Toyota of Orange, Kicker and official event forecaster Surfline.Forecast Powered by Surfline:On Friday the swell will be fading, but there will still be plenty of good size surf showing in the 4-7+ foot range through the morning hours, with a slow decreasing trend over the afternoon. Conditions look excellent: light offshore flow in the morning will turn light/variable in the afternoon and we expect clean conditions all day.”

About KatinKanvas by Katin was founded in 1959 by Nancy Katin in Surfside, Calif., when she and her husband Walter transformed a canvas boat cover business into one of the nation’s first surfwear brands, specializing in high quality surf trunks. Currently a core surf company, today the Katin brand is carried in surf shops and specialty stores throughout the U.S. and worldwide. More information is available at www.katinusa.com <http://www.katinusa.com/> .

About ASPThe Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) is the governing body of professional surfing. Crowning surfing’s undisputed world champions since 1976, the ASP sanctions the following tours: the ASP World Tour, the ASP Women’s World Tour, the World Qualifying Series (WQS) and the World Longboarding, Junior and Masters Championships. The ASP is dedicated to showcasing the world’s best surfing talent in a variety of progressive formats and has revolutionized the way the world watches surfing via their webcasts. The organization is divided into seven different regions: Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, Hawaii, North America, and South America.